by Jim Plautz
PHENOM
The Search for
the Ark of the Covenant
Another Sports Thriller
By Jim Plautz
Featuring Marquette University Basketball
Copyright 2010 by James M. Plautz
Rev, April 23, 2013
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ISBN 978-1-4523-1437-2
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Novels by Jim Plautz
* PHENOM – Let’s Play Basketball - Too good to be true, a mid-year transfer student leads his high school basketball team to the State Championship and along the way helps others become better students and young adults. Matthew Wilson’s past finally catches up with him when the Russian Mafia seeks retribution for past transgressions. This is a feel-good love story and suspense novel structured around a basketball theme. At graduation, students, faculty and the President of the U.S. make a vow; “If you ever need me, I’ll be there for you.”
* PHENOM – Search for the Ark of the Covenant – Matthew Wilson cements his reputation as the greatest basketball player of all time as he leads Marquette University to four successive NCAA championships and then forms a globe-trotter team to travel the world and play all star teams from China, Africa, South America and Europe. But basketball is only a backdrop as Matthew teams up with Father McGinnis and Jim Simpson to bring water to Ethiopia and later, to rebuild the biblical city of Babylon to its former splendor; all part of a master plan to find the Ark of the Covenant, an event heralded by Muslims and Christians as a precursor to the second coming of the Lord. Matthew is severely injured in a basketball showdown with the Muslim basketball star known as the Mahdi, or Chosen One. Matthew’s former classmates are asked to renew a vow made ten years ago; “If you ever need me, I’ll be there for you.”
*OUT OF BOUNDS - Drug smuggling and corporate finance structured around a 36-hole club championship golf tournament. A Miami-based drug cartel is pitted against Swiss financiers for control of a new resort and casino in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The match-play tournament stakes are ‘winner-takes-all’.
*DOUBLE FAULT at ROLAND GARROS - Four junior tennis players destined to meet at the French Open Tennis Championship get caught up in Basque terrorist plans to destroy the newly rebuilt Roland Garros Tennis Stadium; a story of love, jealousy and revenge.
* The Agents (Coming Soon)! - “I regret to inform you that you that your petition to purchase the New York Yankees has been denied. A majority of owners have decided that your ownership group fails to meet the high standards that major league baseball has established for admission into this closed fraternity.”
“Screw you, you sanctimonious windbag, and screw the rest of you that voted no. Your fraternity is nothing but a sham. This isn’t over by a longshot.” Malcolm Linebaum stormed out of the conference room and initiated a five-year plan to bring baseball to its knees.
Characters
Mathew Wilson: ‘Phenom’
Jim Simpson: Coach; President- Simpson Construction
Father Sean McGinnis: Roman Catholic priest
Amar Rashad: ‘The Mahdi’
Ken Reed: Simpson’s right-hand man
Chris Lewis Reed: Former DEA; married to Ken
Marco: Construction Manager in Ethiopia and Babylon
Hugues de Payens: Founder, Knights Templar, 1118 AD
James Bruce: Scottish traveler, writer and Freemason
Oleg Ivanov: Russian Mafia
Falashas: Black Jews of Ethiopia
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iran President; the Antichrist
Moses; Built ‘Ark of the Covenant’; Mt. Sinai, 1480 BC
Marquette Basketball Players: Hall of Fame members
Let’s Play Basketball - Prologue